Porridge

•  
• Porridge

INGREDIENTS

• 120g porridge oats
• 700ml water or milk (or half and half)
• A pinch of sea salt

To serve

• Milk
• Cream
• Honey
• Sugar
• Golden Syrup
• Maple syrup or jam
• Bananas, apples or raisins (optional)
• A pinch of ground cinnamon (optional)

METHOD

How to make porridge

1. Tip the oats into a pan, stir in the water and/or milk and the salt and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Cook briskly for 3 minutes, stirring constantly (jumbo oats will take twice as long). If it's getting too thick, add a dash of hot water.

2. Serve the porridge with a little milk or cream and your choice of sweetener: honey, demerara, soft brown or white sugar, golden or maple syrup, or jam. Feel free to crank it up with sliced bananas, apple slices (gently fried in butter, if you like), raisins and/or a pinch of cinnamon.

3. Wallace porridge variation: So called because my friend Andrew Wallace showed me how to make it, this traditional Scottish approach to porridge uses coarse pinhead oatmeal rather than flat rolled oats, for a nuttier, grainier finish, which I love. It needs overnight soaking, and takes a bit longer to cook. For 4 people, tip 250g pinhead oatmeal into a pan, pour in 900ml cold water and leave overnight.

4. In the morning, add a good pinch of salt and stir gently over a medium heat until it begins to bubble and gloop like hot mud. Turn the heat down low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes, until the porridge is cooked through and creamy. If it is a little thick, a dash of boiling water from the kettle will loosen it. Serve with your choice of milk, cream, honey, jam, syrup or sugar.